Voting to Hire a Chief Without Meeting Him — The mystery isn't why Hewlett-Packard is likely to part ways with its chief executive, Léo Apotheker, after just a year in the job. It's why he was hired in the first place. — The answer, say many involved in the process, lies squarely with the troubled Hewlett board.

At f8, Facebook to jump on the NFC train — In a matter of hours, Facebook is going to host f8, its annual developer conference. By now we have all heard everything that is coming at the event. Back in June, I had exclusively reported that Facebook will launch its Music service in partnership with Spotify and others.

Facebook f8 - live — We follow the announcements at the social network's annual developer conference in the wake of a series of changes to Facebook's design — 10.16am: He has! Respect. Eisenberg is on stage now. “I wanna start with the issue of authentic identity I am Mark Zuckerberg...”

Tell Your Story with Timeline — Since the beginning of Facebook, your profile has been the place where you tell your story. People use it to share everything from the small stuff, like their thoughts on an article, to the most important events of their lives, like the photos of their wedding or the birth of their child.

New HTC users to get 5GB free Dropbox service — Microsoft has Skydrive, Apple has iCloud, and now HTC has Dropbox following a new partnership between the phone maker and popular cloud storage service. — HTC has confirmed to Pocket-lint that users of its latest Android handsets …

‘Stingray’ Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash — For more than a year, federal authorities pursued a man they called simply “the Hacker.” Only after using a little known cellphone-tracking device—a stingray—were they able to zero in on a California home and make the arrest.

Apple's iPad to have ‘free run’ in holiday shopping season — Summary: Garter says that until Android can get its hardware, software and services act together, the tablet market belongs to Apple's iPad. — Apple's iPad is likely to be unchallenged in the tablet market this holiday shopping season, according to Gartner projections.

A New Gowalla — Nearly three years ago I sat on a beach at Lake Tahoe and watched as a large low-flying cloud hung above the lake, creating the backdrop for a beautiful weekend of solitude. As much as I enjoyed the time alone to clear my thoughts, I was overwhelmed with the desire to share this experience with someone.

Gleeful — People come to Twitter to connect with the latest information on the topics and people they care about. From the beginning, brands, businesses and charitable organisations have been an important part of the Twitter experience, providing people with special announcements …

Sean Parker: Agent Of Disruption — Pointed toward his 18-acre compound in Marin County, Sean Parker rips through the night fog on the Golden Gate Bridge in a stealthy Audi S6 that masks a Lamborghini engine, one pale hand on the wheel, the other toggling through thousands of songs uploaded on the car's sound system.

Sprint Capping Phone as a Modem to 5GB Starting October 2nd — And the cutbacks continue! We've seen ETFs increase, Sprint Premier go away, upgrade fees raised, what next? We can now add Phone as a Modem to the list. Our beloved Super Spies have been bringing the pain lately and today is no exception!

Mozilla proposes not-so-rapid-release Firefox — Under the Mozilla proposal, a new Extended Support Release version of Firefox would arrive every 30 weeks. — Mozilla, faced with business users' stiff resistance to its new rapid update schedule for Firefox, has proposed a slower-moving version of the browser.

LivingSocial Weighs $6B Funding Instead of IPO — LivingSocial may raise more than $200 million in funding that would give it a valuation of as much as $6 billion, rather than proceeding with plans for an initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said.

HTC: Beats Audio Windows Phones in the pipeline — HTC has confirmed it is working with Beats Audio to bring the company's music technology to Windows Phone handsets. Speaking to SlashGear at an HTC event today about the prospect of Beats - which currently features on the HTC Sensation XE …

IVP Leads $7 Million Investment In Business Insider — Digital media startup and online news platform Business Insider has raised $7 million in new funding. The round was led by new investor IVP, writes the site's co-founder and CEO Henry Blodget. The company had previously raised funding …

Congress doesn't get Google, and it doesn't get Congress — Is Google evil? Members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights tried to decide that today in a hearing on Google's market power and whether it is beneficial for consumers or not.